This article explores the assessment of social presence in asynchronous text-based computer conferencing, a key component of the community of inquiry model developed by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000). Social presence is defined as the ability of learners to project themselves socially and affectively into a community of inquiry. The authors present a template for assessing social presence through content analysis of conferencing transcripts, including detailed descriptions of coding protocols and interrater reliability figures. The study uses two graduate-level courses as case studies, analyzing selected transcripts to illustrate the application of the template. The results show that the template effectively identifies and quantifies differences in social presence, with transcript B exhibiting higher levels of social presence density compared to transcript A. The authors discuss the implications and benefits of assessing social presence for instructors, conference moderators, and researchers, emphasizing the need for further research to refine the indicators and methods.This article explores the assessment of social presence in asynchronous text-based computer conferencing, a key component of the community of inquiry model developed by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000). Social presence is defined as the ability of learners to project themselves socially and affectively into a community of inquiry. The authors present a template for assessing social presence through content analysis of conferencing transcripts, including detailed descriptions of coding protocols and interrater reliability figures. The study uses two graduate-level courses as case studies, analyzing selected transcripts to illustrate the application of the template. The results show that the template effectively identifies and quantifies differences in social presence, with transcript B exhibiting higher levels of social presence density compared to transcript A. The authors discuss the implications and benefits of assessing social presence for instructors, conference moderators, and researchers, emphasizing the need for further research to refine the indicators and methods.